Sunday started out a beautiful day in spite of predicted thunderstorms and high winds. Jenni (on helm) Julie, Terina Dayna and I set out with the shiny new bottom feeling very fine indeed.
Jenni got a great start, first over the line or near as damn it, and we kept close to the front runners for some time. It was certainly nice to see boats behind us for a change. We must have been going at least a knot faster than last race. Who would have thought a skungy hull would make such a difference. And great team work as well.
After our pass of Goat Island we headed for where the Ball's Head mark should have been and it was nowhere to be seen. With the rest of the fleet we shrugged and set our sails for Cockatoo and beyond. Amon Re, a boat we are sometimes near but rarely ahead of, was beside us so after a chat they rang the race committee to alert them to the missing buoy which is a rounding mark on the next leg.
Meanwhile Julie and I set the pole and we cruised west. By this time we were in a pack of four boats and all vying for advantage. Nice not to be at the back on our own. A tack East past the club and then a rounding of the missing mark by using a nearby buoy from anotehr club with the committee boat standing by to let us know the plan, then up goes the pole again and back past Cockatoo. Halfway west Jenni wanted to gybe and so Julie and I tried a clever trick we had seen on another boat to gybe the pole - and it worked!
We were still very close to Amon Re and Duet and by the time we rounded the last mark off we were match racing Amon re to the finish. and we won by a whisker - 14 seconds to be exact. And there were three boats altogether behind us. What a thrill.
It had started raining and we heard the odd thunderclap but nothing close. By the time the tender picked us up we were wet but happy.
We got back to the club so early that the sausages weren't even cooked yet. An when they were ready I burnt my mouth they were so hot.
The icing on the cake was that we won on handicap. Hooray! And won a bottle of red. And that brought us from 11th to 5th overall for the season.
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